Birkhead's Ticket to Paternity

2/13/2007 4:50 PM PST

Birkhead's Ticket to Paternity

TMZ has obtained a traffic ticket Larry Birkhead got while Anna Nicole Smith was pregnant, and it could be powerful proof that he's the daddy.

"I got a call from my pregnant wife, she's sick."

Rewind to April 15, 2006. Sources tell TMZ a pregnant Anna had just gotten into a fight with Howard K. Stern, who was expressing extreme jealousy over the fact that Birkhead was the father of the baby. Sources say Stern gave Anna an ultimatum -- him or me.

We're told an extremely emotional Anna, who was barefoot and four months pregnant, called Birkhead and asked him to meet her in the parking lot of the Sportsmen's Lodge in Studio City, Calif. near her house. A concerned Birkhead jumped in his car and sped over, only to be stopped by a Burbank cop.

The ticket is significant because Birkhead's statement was a spontaneous reaction to the event and not in the context of a paternity battle. Debra Opri, Birkhead's lawyer, tells TMZ Birkhead referred to Anna as his "girlfriend" but the cop wrote "wife."